Awareness, from the Moment You Wake Up

A MEDITATOR’S JOB is to remember to be aware.

Whether you are standing, sitting, lying down, or walking, if you remember that you are aware, then you are meditating, and you are cultivating the positive qualities of the mind.

We always start with awareness. It is that quality that grounds us and allows all the wholesome mind-states to arise, especially the quality of wisdom. When awareness and wisdom are working together like this, we gain the confidence and the motivation to keep exploring and moving into the uncharted regions of our minds, where suffering gets started at a subtle level.

What the mind is aware of—the objects of awareness such as sensations, thoughts, perceptions, and emotions—isn’t really important. What’s important is the quality of the observing mind that is always working in the background to be aware. The more we remember to be aware, the more we nourish the wisdom that dissolves stress and suffering.

Wisdom is what this practice is about. It is the quality of mind that understands the true nature of reality. It becomes the compass that points the way as we try to understand and remove the mind’s three unwholesome roots of craving, aversion, and delusion.

As individuals, we don’t really know how to deal with the three unskillful root qualities of mind. That’s why the right thing to do in practice is to grow the wisdom quality of mind, which knows how to remove the unwholesome roots. Awareness grows wisdom. So, rely on wisdom; it will stand by you.

Forget the idea that meditation happens only on a cushion or in the meditation hall. Meditation is so important that we need to do it all the time, whenever we can remember. We should meditate from the moment we wake up until the moment we fall asleep.

It is the nature of mind to arise and pass away every moment, but each moment leaves a legacy for the next moment. That’s why it’s important to cultivate the mind’s wholesome qualities such as patience, perseverance, joy, and equanimity—so that they become the legacy that is passed on. Once we learn how to be continuously aware with wisdom, all of the positive qualities of mind will naturally follow. Cultivating the wholesome and positive qualities of mind is the aim of meditation. These, not “I,” are the qualities at work in meditation.

Five of the mind’s positive qualities, called the “spiritual faculties,” are especially important to cultivate in meditation. When these five qualities are in balance, they develop wisdom, the fifth quality of mind, considered the foremost because wisdom dissolves suffering.

The five spiritual faculties are:

Confidence (trust in the practice)
Energy (continuous effort)
Mindfulness (remembering to be aware)
Stability of mind (calmness, stillness)
Wisdom (understanding the nature of reality)

When meditation is